Andy Murray: I ate pizza before facing world's best players

Andy Murray was going through his usual meticulous preparations on Tuesday for his quarter-final against Sam Querrey - a far cry from his first trip to Wimbledon.

The Scot is through to the last eight for the 10th consecutive year having made his debut in 2005, when he catapulted himself into the nation's consciousness by reaching the third round.

Writing in his BBC column, Murray said: "Of course I knew it was important but in truth I was not really aware of how big a deal Wimbledon was, and how much focus there was on this event.

"And, yes, I was enjoying pizza for dinner before facing some of the best players in the world.

"I was staying in the basement of a house in Wimbledon village with my mum, my brother, and (now wife) Kim stayed there a little bit. We just walked down the hill to the All England Club most of the time.

"I do remember fairly clearly that I didn't eat well. With things like diet, we just didn't know any better and I was very naive."

These days every calorie Murray consumes is carefully planned as part of a regime to ensure the world number one is in the best possible shape for each match.

He has been managing a hip injury all tournament but has only dropped one set so far and has seen the big names fall out of his path.

Murray might have faced Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal in the second week, but instead his route to the final comprises Benoit Paire, Querrey and either Marin Cilic or Gilles Muller.

Having comfortably beaten the unpredictable Paire, Murray now takes on American Querrey, a big server who stunned Novak Djokovic in the third round 12 months ago.

Nadal's loss to Muller, meanwhile, means reaching the last four would ensure Murray holds onto the world number one ranking beyond Wimbledon.

The defending champion said: "Sam obviously likes the conditions here. He played really well last year. He's had some good wins here, some tight matches as well. He'll be confident going in.

"He's obviously got a big serve, goes for his shots, a very aggressive player. (Against Paire), I maybe played one or two service games in the first set that weren't the best. Against him, you can't really afford that.

"I'll need to make sure I'm serving well and not letting him dictate too much."

Murray and Querrey have played eight times before, with the Scot winning seven of them, including in the third round of the Australian Open in January.